A unique blog dedicated to covering the worlds of book publishing and the news media, revealing creative ideas, practical strategies, interesting stories, and provocative opinions. Along the way, discover savvy but entertaining insights on book marketing, public relations, branding, and advertising from a veteran of two decades in the industry of book publishing publicity and marketing.

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Thursday, August 17, 2017

Does Book Publishing Pricing Hurt Sales?

In
2016, according to sales estimates released by the Association of American
Publishers, the total number of book units sold was 40,000,000 more than in
2015 - up to 1.2% - but revenue declined by 5.1% - to 26.24 billion
dollars. To me, the only conclusion one
can draw from this, is that publishers aren’t charging enough for books.

Who
sells 40 million more units but sees revenue decline by 420 million dollars?

·Adult
non-fiction, is the largest revenue provider at $5.87 billion, up over 5% from a
year ago.

·Religious
presses soared nearly 7% in revenue in one year.

·Children’s
books and YA jumped by 6.7%.

Book
publishers must raise their prices.
Stores and vendors like Amazon or B&N can choose to pass along discounts
to consumers if it wishes, but publishers need to be financially healthy.

It
is great that more books sold last year than in 2015, because that could
indicate an expansion in the number of book buyers or it means voracious
readers are expanding their reading. Or
maybe more people chose to buy discounted books as presents.

Publishers Weekly, in analyzing the
data, suggested that adult fiction declined steeply because there was a lack of
a big book “as was the inability of novelists to get media attention while the
broadcast and cable networks covered the presidential election.”

What
I find to be remarkable is that non-fiction adult trade books is doing so
well. This is the exact category of content
the Internet, with all of its free blogs, resources, and data was supposed to
make outdated and obsolete for book buyers.
Instead it’s seeing a resurgence.

I
expect to see book sales rise for 2017.
Why? I’m an optimist who bets on books every day. I think with more
indie stories and even Amazon brick and mortar coming out, we’ll see higher
sales. I also believe in a non-election, non-Olympics, war-free year, and an
improving economy, we’ll see more media covering books and more people looking
to enjoy the escape books provide us.

About Me

Brian Feinblum, the creator and author of BookMarketingBuzzBlog, is the chief marketing officer for the nation's largest book promotions firm, Media Connect (www.Media-Connect.com), formerly Planned Television Arts, and has been involved in book publicity and marketing since 1989. He has served several book publishing companies as a publicist, book editor, and acquisitions editor. Brian, who earned a BA in English from Brooklyn College, became a published author in 1995 when he penned The Florida Homeowner, Condo and Co-Op Handbook. He resides in Westchester, New York with his wife, two young children, and an English Bulldog.